A disadvantage of the device is a high content of the different elements in the filter material and acids (even in highly-purified acids). It requires pumping of the large gas volumes (>1 m3) through the filter, which results in a lot of time measured in hours for the sampling. The filter dissolution procedure lasts for quite a long time of 2–3 hours. As a result, this device capacity and efficiency is low. It is a known device for accumulating aerosols from the gases by means of their electrostatic precipitation on a tungsten rod, which is placed into an electrothermal atomizer after the accumulation of the aerosols. The device comprises a gas pump, a high-voltage source of an electric current and a Teflon pipe through which a gas is supplied. A sharpened tungsten electrode is inserted into this pipe wall and positive potential of 10 to 30 kV of is applied to this rod for the corona discharge excitation required for the precipitation of aerosols.
A disadvantage of the device is a partial precipitation of the aerosols on the rod, thus a calibration procedure with the help of an aerosol generator is required. However, it is a non adequate this procedure, since an actual distribution of the aerosol particles according to their dimensions in a sampling point and their composition may essentially differ from the standard one, thus inevitably producing significant and uncontrolled error. Furthermore, the precipitation efficiency remarkably reduces while in creasing the pumping rate, therefore it is necessary to employ relatively low rates of the flow for accumulation (about 1 to 1.5 l/min), since, taking into account low precipitation efficiency, time required for the accumulation is rather long,( i.e. about 30 to 60 minutes).
The functionally close device to the claimed one for accumulating aerosols from the gas comprises an atomizer (graphite furnace) with a transverse hole intended for resonance radiation transmission, a molybdenum needle inserted into the atomizer along its primary axis, a gas pumping system and a high-voltage source. The gas is pumped through the graphite furnace along its main axis. Corona discharge appearing on the atomizer axis at the needle tip becomes a source of the electrons attaching to the oxygen molecules, which precipitate on the aerosol particles accumulated on the atomizer walls.
Disadvantages of the known device are as follows:                1. Accumulation of the medium-volatile and hardly-volatile elements is impossible. Actually, employment of a molybdenum needle that is continuously inserted into the atomizer intended for corona discharge excitation will not permit use of an atomization temperature above 2300° C., otherwise the needle will be destroyed.        2. Relatively low gas pumping rate, i.e. no more than 1 l/min, typically for a coaxial pumping system. At a high pumping rate the precipitation efficiency becomes lower than <1, therefore, the pumping rate is increasing, will not reduce the time required for the aerosol accumulation, even making it last longer. Low pumping rate and low sensitivity (7 to 10 times less than for a standard method of the atomic absorption analysis with the electrothermal atomization) causes longer accumulation period of about 20 to 60 minutes.        